Annie stepped away from the downed foe, looking at the chaos that surrounded the arena. She heard a clicking sound on her shoulder and saw a guard taking aim at her once more. More confused than worried, she looked while the man prepared his weapon for another shot. Surely he understands that he can’t crack through my armor? Annie wondered. Before he could shoot, his shoulder disappeared in an explosion of blood and bone. He fell screaming, while the Relcaimers’ soldiers charged to capture him.

"Annie. Why do you always find yourself in trouble?" Angoro joked over the communication. He put his pistol back in the holster.

"Thanks for the help, lieutenant," Annie smiled back, too tired to try and dodge any gunfire, "Stay safe."

"I am not the one who is injured. Wolf hags Virginia, Annie, stay safe as well."

"Ha!" Virginia sat on her ass, exhaling air from her lungs, "Someone else actually calls me by my name. I like him already."

A warning signal came from one of the wolf hags of Alpha’s pack. Usually, each warlord had ten "fingers" as their "paws", ten wolf hags under their control. Each wolf hag had a single "paw" under their control, five scouts in short. Each scout has their own "paw" to command, five soldiers made up of warriors or males. Alpha’s pack was the biggest, she had several "paws" in her command instead of just two. And now, one of her "fingers" has run into the problem.

The cameras of the soldiers showed Annie how a wolf hag and her troops, assigned to guard one of the arsenals into which they sent in slaves saved from the area of the dog faced man, faced counterattack by the foe.

A group of enemy soldiers pushed the slaves ahead of them, forcing the wolf hag and her troops to stop. Firing the shardguns at this close range would kill the hostages, no matter the aim. The wolf hag quickly made a decision to face the enemy in melee, the power armors of her pack would endure the bullets of the foes.

Hecktricktsen walked from inside the group of the hostages, walking toward the wolfkin, armed with nothing but his bare hands. The moment the wolfkins aimed their shardguns at his legs, he disappeared from their view, overloading the optical zoom of the cameras and making the stone explode in the place where he had just stood. The wolfkins were confused for a moment before noticing that he was standing among them, right behind the front soldiers. They started to turn to face him when the sadist started his carnage.

The stones from his first burst of movement were still in the air when the single palm hit bisected the wolf hag, another punch, like a piston, pushed through the chest of a scout. And he moved on with the killing, and in his wake came heavy-armored guards, with light-armored guards following right behind them, killing the ones that Hecktricktsen left injured. The wolfkins were faster than normal people. Their armor could withstand gunfire. Bullets bounced off their bones. Their shardguns were perfect weapons for close-quarters combat, and the soldiers of Alpha were the cream of the crop, the best of the best in the Wolf Tribe. And yet now they were the ones who were dying, unable to react to Hecktricktsen’s sheer speed and ferocity, unable to fire at the enemies due to the worry about the hostages. His fists crushed through the armor as if the armor was but a paperboard sheet. One of the scouts managed to fire at the sadist, only to find out before her death that his skin was impervious to the sharp shards of the weapons. Hecktricktsen tore off her spinal column for having the audacity of hitting him. Without even using his power, in a single minute, an entire "finger" was pushed away from the arsenal by the sheer might of the dog-faced man, leaving dozens of dead comrades behind.

While the wolfkins retreated, they made a space for the sniper to aim. She was from the group of the regular normies, from the ranks of the soldiers who were advancing behind the wolfkins. Armed with a powerful laser rifle, the woman took aim at Hecktricktsen. Alerted either by his experience or by the bloodlust of the sniper, the sadist turned to the woman. He disappeared from view, running across the ceiling in a blurry line, and jumped right before the sniper. His open palm sliced the woman in two, a casual elbow hit killed one of her bodyguards, while his other hand grabbed a grenade from the belt of the other soldier, activating it and throwing it on the floor. He took less than a heartbeat to kill two people in the power armor. In the next heartbeat, he disappeared, running across the ceiling back to his troops, while the grenade exploded, throwing the soldiers aside. Thanks to their power armors, the people survived, and the retreated wolfkins helped them to retreat.

"Open this door!" Annie heard Hecktricktsen’s words through the cameras of the mortally injured wolf hag.

"Sir, would it not be wise to escape…" Asked one of the guards, before shutting up when Hecktricktsen glanced at him.

"Idiot. The Reclaimers are here," Hecktricktsen smiled, "We are in Pearl. This only means that these fuckers didn’t bring enough numbers with them. Open this door, suit up, continue to push the slaves before us as a living shield, and start cleaning up this place from vermin, level by level."

"But warlords are here… People said that they saw Alpha herself…"

"You leave the warlords to me," Hecktricktsen smiled, looking down at the wolf hag that reached his leg and tried to claw him, only to find out that she did not have the strength to do anything more than pierce through the fabric of his clothes, "Once I get my hands on my armor, Alpha or not, no one will be a problem for me." He reached out and picked up the wolf hag, slowly moving his fingers to her eyes.

"Bel!" Virginia screamed, jumping on her feet. She charged across the arena with renewed strength. Annie looked at her before running right after her, on all fours, cursing from the pain in her paw. Virginia was fast and Annie was unsure of what she was supposed to do when they reached this bastard. They've already tried once and failed.

No matter, I ain’t letting others die, not while I am still breathing. Annie decided. Even in death, a monster remains a monster.

They charged through the corridors, navigating through the map that was uploaded onto their armors. The doors were open for them, the IDs of the Reclaimers were already added into the system, while the IDs of the arena’s guards were slowly being erased by Kassandra and her team. Fighting still raged across them, but the Reclaimers were winning. Only once, Virginia tore through a guard in her path, literally jumping through the woman’s chest, covering herself in blood and insides. Annie mercifully smashed across the fallen foe’s head, ending her suffering.

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They came upon the site of battle with the remains of the wolf hag’s pack and Hecktricktsen with his men, just as Hecktricktsen pushed fingers through the lens of the wolf hag, twisting his fingers within and causing the victim in his hand to twitch and growl in pain. She had lost her body below the waist and was blinded, yet the vitality of the new breed allowed her to keep on living, even if for a short while. The guards still tried to cut through the arsenal’s door. Hecktricktsen easily could have broken through them, yet the sadist preferred to spend his time tormenting the wounded.

"Let go of Bel, you fucker!" Virginia screamed, and Hecktricktsen looked at her.

"Trash," He said, before sniffing the air through the nostrils of his dog's half face. Hecktricktsen smiled wildly, the tips of his lips reaching all the way to his ears, "Is this Alpha I smell behind you? Is she coming? Oh, my blood is burning at the mere thought of her screaming in pain before me…" Drool fell from his lips, "I think that I may be in heath right now…"

Another tremor nearly threw almost everyone off their feet. Hecktricktsen stood unconcerned, returning his attention to the arsenal's doors. He frowned, still holding the wolf hag but removing the fingers from the eye sockets of his victim.

"You have touched the flock of the Oath." A voice came from the other side of the door. It sounded nothing like a human voice, rather like someone who was producing the words by scratching two blades against each other. The words could be easily understood, but at the same time, they sounded utterly alien.

"What's it to you? Wanna die?" Hecktricktsen lifted his arm to the door, "Zenith."

Once more, misty jaws came into existence, and the guards near the door screamed, falling on the ground and thrashing from pain. They climb away from the door, trying to get away from the zone of Hecktricktsen’s power. They never managed to escape. The doors exploded forward in the torrent of steel. Hecktricktsen didn’t move an inch, ignoring the steel shards that hit him at the speed of an arrow. They glanced harmlessly away from his body. Virginia screamed upon seeing how one of the shards moved at the wolf hag in Hecktricktsen’s hand.

Something came from within the arsenal. Enormously thick insectoid legs hit forward. One leg killed five guards in full power armor with one swing. Another leg kicked aside the shard that was aimed at the injured wolf hag. And two more pierced Hecktricktsen’s chest, causing him to gasp in surprise.

At this moment, the floor beneath the enemy soldiers exploded, and five forms appeared from under it. Tall, clad in full power armor, the newcomers wielded short energy blades, slicing through the bodies of the enemy guards and pushing them away from the hostages. Unlike the wolfkins, the newcomers’ helmets were made in the shape of a "pot" a single thin line ran across the head, giving space for the thin visor. Annie recognized them. Long golden capes were supposed to be on their round shaped puldrons, but right now the capes were missing. The heraldry, a crimson sword piercing the black skull, was, however, on their chests. The Avengers, an elite group of trolls who assisted in the defense of the Stonehelm. The soldiers of Oathtakers. The enemy guards who tried to resist were cut down, and the rest were pushed away from the hostages.

"Amusing distraction," The voice said. From within the arsenal appeared the bulk of a spider. Thin hair covered its body, eight eyes, pitch-black beady simple eyes, looked at the sadist. The chelicerae of the creature moved, crashing against each other and producing the sound transmitted into the words, "Can you do better?"

Hecktricktsen roared and grasped both legs, pushing them away from his body, while ghostly jaws closed on the spider’s head. Annie knew just how potent the pain-inducing power of Hecktricktsen was, even standing behind him, she felt how a searing pain began to spread across her body, starting from places in which she was hurt. The broken bones began to hurt ten times worse, the pierced skin felt like it was peeled away at this very moment. This creature's head was the epicenter of this pain explosion. The spider trembled for a moment.

"Exquisite." It said, and Hecktricktsen screamed. The scream of the sadist was cut short the moment chelicerae closed on his head, turning it to paste, his legs twitched while the enormous spider was devouring its prey, swallowing it piece by bloody piece. After finishing its horrific meal, it looked at the guards with clear intent, despite them dropping their weapons.

"No!" Annie shouted, charging forward and stopping before the spider, shielding the bisected wolf hag as a precaution. Virginia followed after her, standing right next to Annie, ready to protect her both wounded comrades with her life, "By the laws of engagement, we do not kill prisoners." Annie felt her fangs clatter against each other in fear, she botched the last words. Up close, she could see this being. The legs had fairly prominent spines, but the main bulk of the creature was covered by the furry hair. Several mechanical devices could be seen on the spider’s head, the rear second row of the creature’s legs bore weird weapons mounted on them, looking like wrist cannons, only much, much bigger. Each long leg ended with a claw. This being was enormous, easily dwarfing even Alpha herself. Under the look of beady black eyes, Annie felt like she wanted to wet herself. Something primal, something that she did not quite understand, spread pure horror in her body at the sight of this "face".

"We go by the laws of war?" The creature asked with an unnatural voice.

"Yes! We are allies… I think." Annie replied way too fast with a quacking voice.

"Medics! We have the injured here. Assault teams! Help our allies secure the prisoners." The spider commanded, moving aside, and Annie saw that within the floor within the arsenal was riddled with holes. Vehicles with drills at their ends burrowed from the underground and soldiers in the uniforms of Oathtakers were taking care of the slaves.

"Crawler. Why are you here?" Alpha asked, coming from the corridor, looking around.

Annie felt her blood turn to ice. Crawler, the grand-general of Oathtakers, the slaughter of five warlords, the killer of six sword saints, the undeniable killer, the butcher, the horror of the night. The one who swore to eradicate the entirety of the wolfkins bloodline. The one who killed so many wolfkins that fear of him was imprinted in all lesser members of both the Ice Fang order and Wolf Tribe alive. The second in command after Hive, the murder beast of the Oath. Crawler received his name shortly after the first Lightbringer met his demise. Hive found a vault left from the Old World. The being within promised eternal servitude in exchange for freedom. Hive, the fool that he was, liberated the creature in exchange for eternal friendship instead. The spider spent little time learning about Oathtakers. Upon seeing how low the morale was after the loss of Lightbringer, the spider moved on to show the world that the Reclamation army could be beaten. On this very night, the creature came upon a crawler vehicle. A warlord and a sword saint were part of the defense force of this vehicle. And yet the spider attacked. By the time help arrived, they found a massive vehicle destroyed and most of the defenders dead. The survivors spoke about the great spider being of unrivaled strength. This was how Crawler received his name. He was standing here. Right in front of Annie.

"The flock of the Oath was kidnapped. I do not possess the mercy of Lord Steward, thus I came bringing the reprisal," He moved aside, allowing medics to try and save the wounded wolf hag, "Right we are her to help our unexpected allies," Crawler said in a voice that left no room for objections, "Where do you want us, commander Alpha?"

Alpha nodded, turning her back to Crawler and gesturing for him to follow. Annie fell on the ground in shock, while a troll and a chitin-covered person moving on three legs came to her, bearing marks of the medics. They asked her to remove her armor, and the wolf hag obeyed, still shocked that she was being treated by Oathtakers. And that Crawler, of all people, saved her and the others. The spider legs carried the massive body of Crawler above her and she and Virginia both shuddered in fear, resulting in both medics trying to calm down the wolf hags verbally.